Stars shine against Skyview

Posted: Sunday, March 11, 2001

By WILL MORROWPeninsula Clarion

With two and a half minutes to play and the Skyview High School girls basketball team clinging to a two-point lead Saturday at Soldotna, it looked as though the Stars' final weekend of Region III/4A play might end in frustration.

Then Soldotna's Erin Wolfe stepped up and nailed a 3-pointer, giving the the Stars a one-point lead and, more importantly, taking away some of the Panthers' momentum. Soldotna turned a steal into a two-point layup by Jennifer Senette seconds later, and the Stars held on to their lead to notch a 53-51 win over the Panthers.

In Saturday's boys game, the Stars traded leads with the Panthers through the first half before finally pulling away in the third quarter for a 49-36 victory.

The Skyview girls were coming off of Friday's 41-34 win over Homer while the Skyview boys had dropped another close game Friday, 55-52 to the Mariners.

"Erin's 3-pointer pumped us up a lot," said Soldotna's Amy Breakfield. "The third quarter is not always our best. We broke down a little bit. You get frustrated when you're down and that leads to more frustration. You've just gotta overcome it."

After Senette's layup, Skyview's Jenny Carpenter pulled the Panthers back to within a point, 50-49, with her basket, but Senette added two more with a backdoor cut.

Skyview went to Carpenter again for two points to make it 52-51 with 34 seconds to play. Skyview was forced to foul to stop the clock, and while the Stars weren't hitting their foul shots, the Panthers weren't able to hang on to the rebounds.

Gretta Besse hit a free throw to make it 53-51, and Skyview's last-ditch shot fell short at the buzzer.

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"Just like last time -- we lost by two," said Skyview's Amanda Bauer, who led all scorers with 19 points. "We just kept hustling. We played with heart. Everybody out there wanted this game."

In fact, the Panthers took a 29-28 lead into the locker room at the half, thanks to a 3-pointer that beat the buzzer by Bauer.

Soldotna tied the game from the foul line, 29-29, to open the second half, but with Bauer and Carpenter hitting their shots, the Panthers were able to lead by as many as six points during the third quarter.

"It just seemed like every shot Skyview put up went in," Senette said. "We had a hard time stopping them, especially Amanda Bauer.

"We usually play zone defense. Coach (Mark Tuter) called a timeout and told to take one person to stay on Bauer. She was playing really well and that hurt us."

The ploy worked as Bauer scored just four points in the second half and the Stars were able to chip away at the Skyview lead.

"We got kinda down and coach called a timeout," Senette said. "He was a little upset and he fired us up -- I wouldn't doubt that he got a few gray hairs over this one."

"We realized that this was our last home game, this was Skyview," said Besse. "We needed to dig down, grab it and win it.

"In practice, coach is always saying pull up and shoot. We need a shot from our guard and a shot from the wing every quarter -- they stepped up and did it."

Besse led the Stars with 12 points while Rachel Besse netted 11 and Senette finished with 10.

Carpenter finished with 17 points for the Panthers.

Soldotna finishes the regular season with a 6-4 mark in Region III play and an overall record of 13-9. Skyview is 2-8 in region play and 8-14 overall.

The Skyview boys got a buzzer beater of their own -- a 3-pointer by Mark McGarry -- to take a one-point lead, 10-9, after the first quarter of their game with Soldotna.

The Stars outscored the Panthers 10-5 in the second quarter though, getting four points each from Nick Christensen and Adam Kiffmeyer, and extended that lead in the third quarter.

"We switched to our man defense," Christensen said of adjustments the Stars made during the game. "That's our bread and butter, and I think it threw them off."

Christensen finished the game with 16 points while teammate Sean Kelley did yeoman's work down the stretch, going 6-for-6 from the foul line in the fourth quarter to finish with 15 points.

"Everyone on our team can shoot the ball," Christensen said. "We think it's going to go whenever anyone takes a shot. It's great to have a bunch of guys who practice enough to be able to put it in the hole consistently.

"For our group of guys, this is the biggest rivalry we have. When us and Skyview get together, we want to beat each other bad."

Kiffmeyer finished with nine points for the Stars.

"It finally came together in the second half," Kiffmeyer said of the Stars' effort. "There were 16 minutes left for these seniors. They knew that and they went out and performed.

"It was a lot more physical than the first time we played. It meant so much -- we had to win and they really wanted to beat us."

McGarry netted 12 points to lead the Panthers. Nolan Rose scored seven while Matt Burdick and Josh Rowell each chipped in with six points.

"It was a great game," McGarry said. "It's hard to lose, but we know we can play with them. We missed some layups that hurt, but other than that we played well. They hit the shots they needed."

The win secures first place in the Southern Division for the Stars, who finish 6-4 in the region and 17-5 overall. The Skyview boys finish the regular season 1-9 in the region and 8-14 overall.

SKYVIEW GIRLS 41, HOMER 34

The Panthers notched a Region III/4A win over Homer Friday at home.

Amanda Bauer led the Skyview effort with 14 points while Jenny Carpenter had eight, Sheena Demaris scored six and Christina Colvin netted five.